Schooner Virginia

Background:

Schooner Virginia is a two-masted, gaff-topsail knockabout schooner, meaning she lacks a bowsprit and her headsails can be handed and furled from the deck. She is 126 feet long, 24 feet wide and weighs 157 tons; her tallest mast – the mainmast – towers 112 feet off the water.

She is a re-creation of her namesake vessel, the last pure sailing vessel built for the Virginia Pilot Association on the Chesapeake Bay between 1917 to 1926. She was designed using the blueprints of the original ship. The original Virginia was built to serve as a floating home and training vessel for the pilots. She was the last all sail vessel built for the Virginia Pilot Association who worked her from 1917 to 1926 when she was replaced by a steam ship.

Virginia was commissioned in 2005 and is owned and operated by the Virginia Maritime Heritage Foundation.